Friday, October 28, 2005

The Corzine Rumor

I've been talking to a lot of people in and around Trenton the last two days after seeing a few posts at Enlighten-New Jersey concerning a potentially damaging video tape of John Corzine (check out Enlighten-New Jersey's posts here, here, here and here).

Enlighten-New Jersey quotes an e-mail that states "Reporters are after a videotape of Corzine, inebriated, making statements that will damage him beyond belief with African Americans." My sources say that the damaging "statements" (or maybe just "statement") is that Corzine uses what most people today refer to as the "N Word." I'm trying to get more information on the context of the alleged statement (context can change things), but if this is all true it could spell very bad things for Mr. Corzine on November 8th.

It will be interesting to see if this will all be kept under wraps until after election day (like Jim McGreevey's multiple skeletons) or whether, if true, the press will actually report it.

To be continued . . .

"New Jersey: We'll win you over."

New Jersey needs a new slogan. Or so says our dear acting governor. He isn't happy with the slogan crafted by a New York branding and image consultant (which the state paid $260,000 to): "New Jersey: We'll win you over." I tend to agree with him (and wonder if we can get some of that money back).

So, its up to us -- Acting Governor Codey would like to hear your slogan ideas (I don't think he'll be offering $260,000 for this one though). You can submit your thoughts here.

Check out Drew Sheneman's list of rejected slogans here.

One last note -- were there no New Jersey "branding and image consultants" worthy of taking a crack at crafting a slogan (and worthy of the $260,000 state payment)?

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

All news is good news

$100,000 of good news in Newark, New Jersey. From the AP:

Call it pay for praise, greenbacks for good news, bucks for beneficial publicity. The Newark City Council has awarded the Newark Weekly News a $100,000 no-bid contract to publish positive news about the city.

Howard Scott, who owns Newark Weekly News, pitched the idea to the city council, which unanimously approved the idea earlier this month.

"Do we have critical reporters on staff? No. Do we have investigative reporters? No," Scott said. "Our niche is the good stuff. People have come to know it, and they love it."

Under the contract, the paper will work with the city's public information office to spread positive aspects of the city.

The paper can only generate stories based on leads from the council and the mayor's office.

John O'Brien, executive director of the New Jersey Press Association, said it was bad public policy to use tax dollars this way.

"The press role is supposed to be that of a watchdog," O'Brien said.

Is this journalism or advertising?? I fear it may be a waste of $100,000.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Say goodbye to Hooker Lane

The Representative Town Meeting of Greenwich, Connecticut voted today to change the name of Hooker Lane. Read about Hooker Lane (and the people who had nothing better to do than worry about the name) here. As of next week, it will be known as Stonebrook Lane.

I'm glad to see the people of Greenwich are taking on the weighty issues.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Corzine spreads more of his cash

More talk about Corzine and how he spends his money from Michelle Malkin:

Corzine's Charitable Donations Questioned

Criticized on finances, Corzine offers a shrug

Remember this and this.

Monday, October 17, 2005

It's a Race

Three weeks to go, and it looks like we may actually have a race for governor. According to the Cook Political Report, New Jersey's governor's race is now a "toss up" (defined as a "competitive race" that "either party has a good chance of winning").

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Row, row, row your boat

Hysterical! You MUST read about the Today Show reporter in the canoe in Wanye, New Jersey AND then watch the vidoe here. The flooding is pretty bad in Wanye and surrounding areas (as well as at the Jersey Shore and pretty much everywhere else in the Northeast -- this stuff happens after 8 days of continuous rain), but come on NBC!!

Michelle Malkin has something about it here.

Hat tip Chad Evans at inthebullpen (and my mom who told me about it on the phone first before finding the story).

Update: NBC changed the video for the West Coast feed of the Today Show, so the video linked above has the reporter walking in much deeper water. Still funny to read about it though.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Corzine to Monmouth: You're not so great

In last night's New Jersey governor debate, Democrat nominee Senator Jon Corzine disagreed with Republican nominee Doug Forrester's opinion that "Monmouth County has always been looked to, and will continue to be looked to, as an example of good government." Corzine questioned the statement because of the recent indictments of some Monmouth County officials.

Corzine is right, there have been some corruption problems in Monmouth. But what large New Jersey county does Corzine think should be an example? Hudson? Essex? Mercer? Union? Passaic? Camden? Every large Democrat-controlled county in New Jersey is corrupt beyond belief. What large county should we look to as an example, Jon?

Friday, October 07, 2005

Harvey, Corzine, Katz & Codey

No, the title isn't the name of a new law firm. A new column by Asbury Park Press commentator Bob Ingle runs down a few of the more recent issues with New Jersey's Attorney General Peter Harvey. Read the full column here. The highlights on Harvey are as follows:

For more on Harvey's recent shortcomings, go here. None of this paints a pretty picture of General Harvey.

But that's not all! Ingle also discusses the recent endorsement of Corzine by a group of New Jersey ministers. Interestingly, at least two of the ministers received money from Corzine -- one received a $1 million donation and the other a $800,000 loan. Didn't Corzine's ex-girlfriend Karla Katz (you know, the head of the state's largest public employee union and recipient of almost $500,000 of Corzine's cash) endorse him sometime after she received her money?

Read the rest of the column. It has some other tid-bits about donations Corzine has made to schools and education groups (normally a good thing, but not so if your property taxes actually go up because of it) and how Codey is filling every empty position he can with his cronies.

I'm hoping that the Trenton Democrats are all sent packing in November.

Remember, register to vote by October 11, 2005 for the November general election.


Thursday, October 06, 2005

Arrest me!

If you were a fan of the New York City Fire Department calendar, then you should take a look at the Calendar Cops. Here is a story about the 2006 calendar and if you want a preview, click here. I've already selected my favorites. Buy one, its for a good cause.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Peter Harvey is at it again . . .

First he allowed the elected Democrats in Trenton play politics with anti-terror funding, and now he is getting into a pissing match with Acting Governor Codey and the state's Office of Counter-Terrorism (OCT). In short, Attorney General Harvey stripped counterterrorism director Sidney J. Caspersen of up to 20 state troopers assigned to the OCT. Harvey was able to do so because he controls the state police but does not have total control (or complete oversight) over the OCT (which was created by former Governor McGreevey and at one point was headed by the now infamous and completely unqualified Golan Cipel).

Its clear that this was a turf war between Harvey, who wants total control over counter-terrorism, and Codey/Caspersen, who obviously want to keep much of the control (and maybe the limelight) in the hands of the governor.

Although I don't think splitting up the counter-terrorism efforts of the state between multiple agencies, i.e., the OTC and the AG's office, is the best way to operate the state's efforts, Harvey's power play was completely inappropriate. If he thought his office (and his way) was the best organization to handle the task, wouldn't a call to the governor's office and the suggestion of a meeting to discuss his plan (if he even had one) have been a better alternative?

Instead, he forced Codey to strip the Attorney General's office of budgetary and personnel decisions as they regard counter-terrorism efforts, transfer ten of the troopers back to the OCT and give the OCT the authority to hire 15 new investigators. In doing so, Codey stated that he was "disappointed with the decision by the Department of Law and Public Safety [New Jersey's Attorney General's office] to reassign state police from the Office of Counter-Terrorism without my input or consent."

Brilliant, Peter.

Can we please elect someone who will clean house in Trenton?

Codey courted by Schumer

Interesting that Chuck Schumer has asked Dick Codey to consider the Senate race next year. Shouldn't Chuck wait until after the election this November to make sure the seat will be open?

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